Petroleum and natural gas engineering involves the design and application of systems of natural resource discovery, production, processing, and transportation. The program at West Virginia University is one of only four ABET-accredited programs encompassing both petroleum and natural gas engineering in the country. The Department provides educational programs at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels. The curriculum blends scientific and engineering fundamentals, oral and written communication, and computer applications, followed by drilling engineering, production engineering, reservoir engineering, and stimulation design, all leading to a capstone design course. Faculty members are active in research in a wide range of specialties within petroleum and natural engineering, including applications of data analytics to Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering areas, shale gas production, artificial intelligence, carbon capture and storage, reservoir characterization, oil and gas production & storage, formation stimulation & fracturing and drilling engineering.

The West Virginia University Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department looks forward to collaborating in joint projects with the oil and gas industry.